Given the fickleness of journos when it comes to actually investigating further than Google, I wonder how common this sort of thing (abandoning the urban sprawl and heading back to the land to eke out a living has become?

The situation in Greece at the moment is dier. I heard on radio 4 a while ago, they were interviewing a priest who runs an orphanage within the church. He was saying everyday mothers are leaving their kids with him becasue they can no longer afford to feed them. Horrible!

But this is always somthing I'v believed. As time goes on it is becoming increacingly difficult living in this consumeristic society. The economy is going to shit, people are having to drastically cut back their spending, along with global warming and unsustainable fossil fules. The whole world needs to turn back to clean sustainable living in order to survive. Being able to produce your own food, water, electricity, heat your water ect ect will end up being a nessesity instead of just a lifestyle choice.

My view on the situation that is affecting the likes of Greece, Spain and here in Ireland is that historically, these were always poorer countries, they entered the Euro who bunged loads of money at them, more money than could ever be imagined before and then they went mad with it, overspending, partying and now it is pay back time, the EU have done these countries no favours at all, just lulled people into believing the gravy train could never stop. When I first came to Ireland just under 4 years ago, there was not much veg growing in gardens, people said it was cheaper to buy. This year, there are signs that this is reversing, the traditional spuds and cabbage are popping up all over the place. I held a free vegetable growing course at the local womens centre and there were 12 women that signed on which is a large number for here. They were eager to learn the skills again as they had forgotten how to grow, all with tales of how their fathers and grandfathers grew all for the table. Cuba is a good example of how food can be grown again in cities, only by hitting rock bottom can we start to come back up but hopefully in a different way. As for producing all your own power, after having looked into quite a bit of this, we came to the conclusion that we don't actually have enough money to buy all the kit needed and replacement batteries etc, so it still remains the domain of people with a bit of cash to spare.

Yes it is pricey for PV soler pannels ect. But technology advances at a phenominal pace and im sure in 5 -10 years from now there will be better, more efficent, cheaper and a wider range of soler pannels and other sources of sustainable energy and it will become avalible for everyone to afford.